One of the most anticipated events of this summer is the New York City Waterfalls. Starting on Friday, June 26th and running through October, four spots in the East River will be morphed into 100 foot high waterfalls. It's all part of a public art project by artist Olafur Eliasson who is challenging us island dwellers to pay a bit more attention to our water.
The five 90 to 120-foot tall installations will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset, adding a striking element to New York City’s iconic skyline. One will be by the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, the other between Piers 4 and 5 at Furman and Joralemon Streets in Brooklyn. A third waterfall will be located in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35, and the fourth on the north shore of Governors Island.
The project uses only environmentally sustainable energy and they promise that the structures won't harm the fish, shoreline or aquatic life (yup, thats right, fish actually live in the East River). And if your family gets really into it, you can follow up the waterfalls with trips to MOMA and PS1 where Eliasson currently has exhibits which incidentally are great for babies since they include lots of colored lights.
Bonus: Mommy Poppins is teaming up with Circle Line Tours to give 3 lucky readers a 4-pack of tickets to the Shark Boat speed boat tour of the waterfalls. What better way to get kids psyched to see some cool public art then by passing it at really fast speeds? And, learn after the jump about other FREE boat tours of the waterfalls that anyone can get tickets for!